FA Youth Cup Final: Pennant makes his presence felt

By Sam Wallace

10:24PM BST 18 May 2001

Arsenal (2) 5 Blackburn (0) 0

AT £1 million, Jermaine Pennant might yet go from being the country's most expensive teenager to the biggest bargain in modern football. Arsenal's richly talented striker ransacked Blackburn's defence last night with a style that will make it difficult for Arsene Wenger to ignore him for long.

Pennant's arrival at Arsenal from Notts County at the age of 15 signalled open season on teenage talent. He has a right foot honed by years on the right wing and a turn of pace that make him an emphatic centre-forward.

Arsenal's first goal in the 13th minute came from a Pennant cross from the right that Jerome Thomas headed back across goal. Jeremie Aliadiere, who scored four in Arsenal's two semi-final games against Ipswich, hooked the ball over his shoulder and past Ryan Robinson in the Blackburn goal.

Collecting the ball from Pennant's cross, Thomas added the second a minute later, stepping delicately past a challenge in the box to bury the ball inside Robinson's far post. On 56 minutes Steven Sidwell contributed Arsenal's third from close range.

The fourth goal on 66 minutes saw Aliadiere weave nonchantly between two challenges to drive the ball home. The German schoolboy international Moritz Volz took the same route six minutes later, squeezing the ball in from the right.